Spring is definantley right around the corner, It has been in the 50s all week and the temperature is steadily climbing. Since I am in Utah I do expect another snow storm or two but I will welcome the moisture as long as we don't have any out of control windstorms like last year! My favorite part about spring is watching all of the plants come start to come back from last year. My Crocus' have come up, I have yellow, white, and purple. The tulips and daffodils are starting to break through as well but no blooms yet and probably not for another couple of weeks.
My bleeding hearts are starting to come through. Last year they were doing great until we had a huge hail storm in April and a bad wind storm in May. I am hoping the fare better throughout this summer, hopefully they are stronger plants because of the ordeal they went through last year. I have three plants along the edge of my house by my door and all of them are starting to peep through the leaves and dirt.
My favorite poppy plants are also starting to show there green color. Last year they were only a year old. I had about three to four blooms, from six plants. My goal is to fill the whole bed with Oriental Poppys. At the end of April I plan to go to the nursery and pick up a couple more Poppys. Last year this plant produced one blossom, and it was as big as my hand!
My little Rhubarb has also made an appearance, since I took this picture another stem and leaf has grown. This rhubarb is a year old, I'm not sure how quickly rhubarb grows but I hope I can get a good harvest out of this one soon and make some rhubarb pie.
This week I prepared all of the vegetable beds by tilling them and adding compost. I found worms in all of the beds but one, so I also dug up some worms from the other beds to add to the worm-less patch. I bought compost this year from my cities landfill. It was only $25.00 for a whole truck load! My own compost pile wont be ready until the fall so I'm hoping I can use that for next years harvest.
This is the newest patch, my husband dug this grass out for me in exchange for dinner at Red Lobster. Last year in the fall I planted four Russian Sages. Last year I had a problem attracting bees to my pumpkins and squash so this year I thought I would attract them by mixing flowers with my pumpkins. In this patch I plan on growing pumpkins, sunflowers, and corn.
This patch is on the South side of my house. If you look carefully you can see my little rhubarb on the left side. I set up netting for my sugar snap peas, and I will also be planting leafy greens, like Romain, Blue Kale, and Green salad. Since all of these plants do well in a cooler soil This patch will probably be the first to be planted.
This patch is also on the south side of my house. I built teepees yesterday for my pole beans. I also have three raspberry bushes to the left of the teepees that are starting to bud. This patch will also have potatoes, carrots, corn, and sugar pumpkins. To the right of the stones I have planted garlic which is starting to look really good. I planted them in November of last year and they started coming up a couple of weeks ago.
My three raised beds on the north side of my house were the easiest to prepare with only a couple of weeds. I set up my orange tomato trellis I made last year. Having the tomatoes grow up a thick rope worked really well. In the bed farthest away I will have all of my pepper plants. This year I am taking it easy on the Habanero and I will probably only have one plant. I am also planting cayenne, jalapeno, Poblano, and a sweet bell pepper. If there is room between the rows I am also planning on planting carrots. In the middle box I will plant all of my tomatoes, mostly Roma cause they are my favorite. and in the last box I am planting egg plant, soy beans, and basil. I have more room in this last box so when things start coming in I may move them over to this one. Possibly my okra...but I'm not sure yet. I also heard that planting marigolds next to your tomatoes protects them from insects so I am planning on experimenting with that as well.
There is no update on my seedlings thus far, except I have planted a pot of basil. My peppers still haven't sprouted but I'm not suprised, I have been keeping the soil warm and hopefully I will see some sprouts next week. I have been having some problems with my okra seedlings. They looked great last week, but this week the leaves are turning brown and they are slowly dying one by one. I still have four plants so I'm hoping I can keep those alive. If not, I still have time to try something different with them.
This is a picture of my okra which is looking very sad. I bought these pellets at Home Depot that you can just add water too and they turn into a seed starter for your seedlings. I haven't been really happy with them. This picture at the top of this blog is a picture of my soybeans. The leaves are looking great but the stems are extremely weak, and I worry that they wont be able to hold the beans up. 
My eggplant looks like it is really the only one that seems to enjoy these seed starter pellets. This week they have all sprouted a third leaf and look green and healthy.
I re-planted some okra, soybeans, and some peppers in this home made seed starter. It is just an egg carton with holes poked in the bottom filled with compost and dirt. I wanted to plant the same seeds that I had used in the seed starter pellets so I could really compare which one worked the best. Of course the egg carton isn't very deep so I will have to transplant the seedlings sooner than I would with the seed pellets but hopefully the seedlings will be healthier.
